Friday, February 22

This year I made an effort to catch as many nominees as I
could. Compared to past years, I feel that I did pretty well, especially in some
of the major categories. Here are my picks for who I think will win, and who I
think should win. I’m not including every category, only the ones I’m
most interested in. Agree? Disagree? Let me know in the comments.

Monday, February 18

The SEALS are the United States’ elite military force. Those
who enlist undergo intense training for their missions. SEAL Team SIX
especially has received much attention after the raid which resulted in the death
of Osama Bin Laden. But that is not their only story.

Adam Brown was a member of SEAL Team SIX before the raid. He
grew up as a young boy in Arkansas and was a person who never backed down. He’s
the kid who jumped off of roofs and who jumped off a bridge from a moving
vehicle as a teenager. Adam was also the kid who refused to take off his life vest
when boating with friends because he promised his parents he wouldn’t. Loyalty
was something Adam held close. But, as he grew older, that loyalty began to be
overshadowed by darkness. He fell into the wrong crowd and his life spiraled in
addiction, and then to jail.

Monday, February 11

Too often Christians explain Jesus in terms that can make him
seem unreachable. Or they go in the opposite direction, and talk about his
humanity while neglecting the divine. In his book Next Door Savior, Max Lucado writes to bring both to the table. One
of the things I appreciate about Lucado is his simple writing. He is down to
earth and I can imagine him sitting across the table talking with me. However,
the simple writing does not mean he dumbs things down. While not an exegetical paper,
he does work with a multitude of different topics.

The beginnings of most chapters read as a dramatization of a
biblical story. Without changing the meaning of the story, Lucado adds little
details. These might be sights or smells that would be encountered. When
reading the Bible, it can be hard to actually imagine these events happening.
Yet Lucada breaths a life into the stories that I think we too often gloss over
when reading. We can read about the blind man that Jesus healed with a gob of
spit, but we don’t always try to think of what it would’ve been like